Abstract
This paper describes the TensorCash asset protocol — a faithful, consensus-enforced extension to a Bitcoin Core fork that allows a single chain to issue, govern, and transfer arbitrary fungible assets alongside its native coin. The protocol is built around three load-bearing ideas. First, every output may carry a single typed binary record (TLV) which is committed to by the transaction's sighash, so that asset state cannot be rebound after a signature is produced. Second, every asset has an Issuer Control Unit (ICU): a UTXO-shaped on-chain credential that the issuer must rotate on every authorized spend, and that is bonded by a posted native-coin stake released only when a fee threshold has accumulated. Third, regulated assets carry zero-knowledge proofs of holder eligibility (KYC) using on-chain Groth16 verification keys, on-chain rolling compliance roots, and per-spend Taproot input-key binding. The result is a system where a token is a first-class UTXO — composable with Bitcoin's existing script families, taproot covenants, and PSBT tooling — but where issuance, transferability, compliance, and the consensus-governed subset of issuer governance are enforced at consensus, not at an off-chain layer.
Contents
- Introduction
- Design Goals
- The vExt Wire Format
- The TLV Catalog
- Issuer Control Units and the Bond Lifecycle
- Asset Distribution: Mint, Transfer, Burn
- Governance: Immutable Bits, Quorum Rotation, Ballot Binding
- KYC: Zero-Knowledge Compliance
- ICU Encrypted Payloads and Holder-Only Visibility
- Derivatives: Atomic Swaps, Repos, Forwards
- Mempool and Reorg Behaviour
- Security Model and Attack Surface
- Appendix: Constants, Limits, and Activation
- Appendix: Qt Wallet and RPC Surface
The full paper — figures, equations and appendices — is in the PDF above. Authored pseudonymously by Imosuke Takakuni.